Gone with the Wind

It's been a couple of months since my big move and now feel as if I have settled back into a routine. Hopefully that routine will allow me more time to write blogs as there are many great books out there I would like to recommend to people.


It has been a while since my last post and the fault is mine alone. I finished Gone with the Wind a few months ago but haven't been up to the task of writing about it. One of the reasons why is "How does one write about a book like that?" When trying to write about a book so well known and loved and so many people have written about it before. I am left with a hollow feeling as if I'm trying to cross the sea in a life raft. The shear scope of this book is so deep that one doesn't even know where to begin, but I will try.


First I would like to say that I am ashamed that until recently I had never read Gone with the Wind. This is an over site on my part as I had borrowed the book from a family friend years ago, but never picked it up before they asked for it back. It was not until my younger sister who is not an avid reader said she wanted to read Gone With the Wind did I decide to read it as well because there is no way I'm going to let my little sister read a book I haven't read yet. So began the battle to see who could finish the book first. she did only by a few days (she had over a month head start) but I have got to say it was one of those books that I never wanted to end.



As for the book itself I hardly need state that Gone with the Wind is one of the greatest American books ever written. The beautiful flowing language and story captivates any reader with an idealist look at the old south before the war. To get just a glimpse at a world that is now gone is such a treat. History fascinates me and any chance I get to read about the past I'm game (even if it is fictional). Though the civil war is a large portion of the story for me the overarching story line is survival through anything life can throw at you. Even the intertwined love triangle between Scarlet, Rhett, and Ashley is not enough to take away the the of survival. Reading the book really opened my eyes to why Scarlett was the way she was. I am happy to say the movie does do the book justice but there is so much more to the story than the silver screen would ever hope to accomplish. One can only wonder at what other stories Margret Mitchell would have come up with if it wasn't for her untimely death.



There is really only one think I can cay about this book: Absolutely Beautiful.

The Hunger Games

OK so the story line isn't new, it's after the world or US as we know it has fallen and a new kind of socialist government has taken it's place. One way the government maintains control of the districts around the country is to host the Hunger Games every year. A game which takes a male and female from each district from the age of 12 to 17 to participate in the game.

The kids are chosen through a lottery which each name in the pot. (Lots more detail here but I wont get into that.) anyway the heroine of the series is Katniss a common enough girl who volunteers to participate in the hunger games in order to save her younger sister. (did I mention that the hunger games is a hunt where each participate hunts the others and the last contestant alive wins. that's right I said alive as in they have to kill each other.)

Katniss knows that she is basically committing suicide since no one from her district has won the games in over 50 years but in order to save her sister from that fate she is willing to accept the challenge. There is, however, another twist *of course there is* the boy chosen from her district is in love with her.

So now the games begin. Each district are given a mentor and a prep team to help them in the week before the games start which are shown over live TV and all citizens are required to watch. The book is full of twist and turns as the contestants from all 12 districts fight to stay alive and as time goes by the government adds twist to the game to make the situation even more dangerous for the contestants. So who will be the last one standing?

A page turner to the very end. I immediately reread the book as soon as I was finished and now I am eagerly awaiting the second in the trilogy. "Catching Fire" out Sept 1.

A great easy read book for anyone that wants a book to make you think and realize that our world while flawed is not that bad after all.

I PEEPS at your TWILIGHT and it was UGLIES

As my first blog I thought I would write about a few books I've read recently. As most people know the Twilight series have become a huge machine. I am happy to say that I did reading Twilight before the series really took off. A great book by my standards but I love to read and very rarely find something I don't like. I never thought I would like a vampire novel. I am just not a vampire type person per se, well I wasn't until recently. It wasn't the dreamy heart throb that changed my mind either. It was the dichotomy of good vs evil, mortality vs immortality, and human vs inhuman. A story that's basically set in the real world with this fantasy spin really appealed to me. The characters as well were intriguing. a human girl who is by all rights an outsider and uniquely spirited, a vampire trying so hard to be good that he hates everything about himself, and a werewolf that is all about loving life. put the three together and how and you not come out with a hit? for me it is a page turner. read it I think you'll like it.

Uglies is a series by Scott Westerfeld. thought provoking and intriguing. In a would after ours has fallen everyone is pretty. but is being pretty a good thing? funny and serious at the same time the author creates a world that in some ways is even more messed up than ours.

Peeps also written by Scott Westerfeld (I've read almost all of his books and love them) I start reading this book after my sister who never reads read it. for her it was alittle slow but I couldn't put it down. it was fast passed and funny to the core.

I haven't given any of these books Justice it's been a few months since I've read them so I'll probably write about them again and tell you a little more about them but I'll end saying this. Young Adult books are not just for teens.. Believe me Adults will love them too.